Recall our objective is to get MS Teams to present a series of conversational prompts supporting various business processes. Recall, also that these prompts are assembled as “Adaptive Cards” which is an odd name for a new thing that seems a lot like a “form” for those of us that have programmed forms for as long as we have programmed forms.
So we ask Copilot:
What do I need to set up a development environment for presenting Adaptive Cards in MS Teams?The answer was succinct:
- Install Required Tools.
- Open a Microsoft Developer Account.
- Create a Team App Project.
The required tools are simple enough. They include Node.js, VSCode, Microsoft Teams Toolkit for VS Code and ngrok.
We’ve already installed VS Code and Node.js. They’ll both Start | Run from our Windows Start menu. Node.js will give us a command line console and VS Code opens the IDE where we’ve created some introductory files in a folder.
When we get to the Microsoft Teams Toolkit, we’re talking about a VS Code extension but, alas, this one doesn’t exist. Copilot will admit that it’s been changed to the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit and we can install that extension just like we have added other previously. Once added, you’ll get a new icon in your VS Code activity bar:
Lastly, since Node.js is already installed, we can install ngrok from a command line using:
npm install -g ngrokNote that’s an npm command as opposed to an rpm you may have remembered from your Linux days. That does what it does and looks like this:
Now, sure, we’ve all got MS365 accounts except mine hasn’t been touched in a couple of years since, I think, it was a VisualStudio.com account and it was attached to an Azure account and who knows where that leaves us but Copilot is undeterred. It tells us to go to:
https://developer.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/dev-program
Where we see this:
Obviously, Microsoft is disgusted at the fact that I’ve already joined and have an account but I don’t have an account and have to join. So let’s click Join Now.
Copilot is helpful and optimistic suggesting:
Sign in with your Microsoft account
Use the same account you used for Visual Studio Enterprise if possible. If that account is still active, your old subscription might be recoverable.The join process is straightforward but requires a phone number, a Capcha and secret code sent via text.
Where you land is a big ol’ fork. You can build an instant sandbox or can build your own sandbox. This sandbox is a .onmicrosoft.com subdomain. If you choose the instant sandbox, it says it will give you sample users, some sample data, and a dopey subdomain name. If you chose the latter, it says it will take some time to provision, you’ll have to create your own sample data, and you can pick your own subdomain name. At this point, since you can later delete and restart your sandbox, let’s do the instant sandbox.
It’s going to want you to select an administrator user name and passwords for that ID and all your sample IDs.
Then it wants to connect to a Visual Studio subscription. I have two but they’re attached to an old ID and now this sandbox will be connected to a new ID so I select Do Not Connect to a Subscription.
I land on a welcome page:
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/profile
And there’s a Setting page:
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/profile/settings
Once you get here, you can go to your sandbox environment:
It looks like I get 90 days and I can Go to my E5 Sandbox. We’ll save that for next time.